Dry Heat: A David Mapstone Mystery (David Mapstone Mysteries) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Maryvale! Fortunate home of the American dream..." (more)
Key Phrases: badge case, combat stance, homeless guy, John Pilgrim, George Weed, Kate Vare (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Talton avoids the excessive carnage and high body count that too often mar otherwise competently handled crime novels in his compelling third mystery to feature the Phoenix deputy known as "The History Cop" (after Camelback Falls and The Concrete Desert). When an FBI badge turns up with the body of a homeless man found facedown in a swimming pool, Mapstone recalls the story of John Pilgrim, the only FBI agent ever murdered in Arizona. Although the unsolved slaying occurred in 1948, the gang suspected of Pilgrim's shooting death is still operating. When Mapstone's police officer wife, Lindsey, obtains proof of their guilt in Pilgrim's murder, she becomes their next target. And so the heat is on—and it's mostly on Mapstone, who proves a resourceful and intelligent protagonist. Taut prose helps tighten the screws, and the winning, sensitive portrayal of the Mapstones—both of them a relief after too many hard-nosed PIs who are all gristle and no brain—lends credibility to the noirish narrative. While Talton breaks no new ground, he knows all the angles and plays them for maximum impact.
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Product Description

The past is never past on the mean streets of Phoenix, especially when the mercury hits a hundred and it's only April. Half a century after the unsolved murder of an FBI agent, the missing badge is found on the body of a dead transient. The case seems a perfect fit for David Mapstone, history professor turned Maricopa County deputy sheriff. That is, if he can get past a forced partnership with rival cold-case expert Sgt. Kate Vare and the FBI's strange stonewalling about the details of the agent's killing.

To complicate matters, there are the crimes making history today, like the arrest of Russian mafia members in a multimillion-dollar fraud case. David's wife, Lindsey, star of the sheriff's Cybercrimes Bureau, was on the task force that busted the case wide open. But her triumph is short-lived when a hit in Scottsdale leaves three task-force members dead. Lindsey's life in danger, Sheriff Peralta stashes Lindsey and David in a safe house. That doesn't get the good "History Shamus" off the hook, though, as Sheriff Peralta inexplicably demands that David solve the cold case.

The trail will take Mapstone to the most forlorn parts of Phoenix, as well as to San Francisco and picturesque southern Arizona, as he slowly uncovers the bloody secrets surrounding the mysterious FBI badge. He's got the brains and the leads. Now all he and Lindsey have to do is live long enough to bring justice to a fifty-year-old crime.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur; 1st edition, edition (October 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312333854
• ISBN-13: 978-0312333850
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #840,403 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fine "History Shamus" tale , December 2, 2004

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Having a homeless person die is no big deal anywhere in this country. However, having a homeless person die with an FBI's badge sewn into his pocket raises eyebrows. When that badge found on the John Doe belonged to Agent John Pilgrim murdered in 1948, nothing makes sense.

The FBI asks Maricopa County, Arizona Deputy s David Mapstone to help on the case because he brings a unique perspective to an investigation. A former San Diego State University Professor of History, David looks at clues from the viewpoint of a historian sifting through information. The Feds believe that point of view might explain how a badge lost over fifty years ago surfaced on a dead; ironically the FBI fails to cooperate when it comes to providing full information on the long dead agent. However David has other concerns involving his wife Lindsey; a computer whiz, she several others cracked a case involving the Russian mafia; now three members of her team have been assassinated. As the Mapstones struggle to stay alive, the professor begins solving the current spin of the cold case homicide.

The third "History Shamus" tale is an intriguing mystery especially when David works the cold case with little cooperation from the FBI, who wants to restrict his investigation to how the homeless person got the badge. His work also puts him in professional conflict with the Cold Case Squad. The sidebar involving his spouse adds suspense and ultimately ties back to the prime theme, but can be distracting until the reader sees the links. DRY HEAT is a terrific entry in a fine unique police procedural (see CAMELBACK FALLS and CONCRETE DESERT for the previous novels).

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dry Heat, March 9, 2006

By	Sandra L. Loveland "Sandra" (Scottsdale, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

David Mapstone and his wife Lindsay are a delightful pair of crime solvers: David because he really doesn't want to be but can't refuse the order of the Sheriff to work a long-dead case, and Lindsay because her life is in serious jeopardy if they don't solve the case soon. It's also great to read about a couple that are not romanticized but are definitely committed to each other.
The reason these books are so appealing is that the author Jon Talton makes such wonderful, insightful and downright derogatory comments about Phoenix that are SO true! It is a city without a soul. Talton's style is clean, clear, and the plots are complex enough to keep the reader going.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mapstone returns in "Dry Heat", June 24, 2005

By	Kevin Tipple (Plano, Texas) - See all my reviews

"'It's a new dark age," he said at one point. "Nobody reads anymore. People are losing the ability to think. Television has destroyed us. I'm glad I won't live to see the worst of it.'" (Dry Heat, Page 73)

History and the dead, victims of crime or otherwise, have been constant themes of this enjoyable series. So too has been the price of progress and resulting urban sprawl and what that has done to Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Those themes continue in this third novel of the series, which also deals with modern day realities of the Russian Mafia and terrorism.

In 1948 the body of FBI Agent John Pilgrim was found floating in a canal outside what was then small city of Phoenix, Arizona. Over 200 agents spent more than two months working the case before it was ruled a suicide and buried by FBI management. Now, an elderly homeless man has been found dead, floating in a swimming pool, at approximately the same location. Homeless people die everyday across this country and that isn't why the media are circling above by helicopter or clogging the neighborhood streets below with satellite trucks. Word is already out that the dead homeless man had the dead agent's badge. A badge that vanished in 1948 and never found, was sewn inside the dead man's coat.

An interagency taskforce is formed and launches an investigation with all the political backstabbing and power plays that go along with such things. Assigned to the case, Deputy Sheriff David Mapstone should be focused entirely at the matter at hand but he can't focus that well. Recently married to Deputy Lindsey, he knows how lucky he is and is reminded thanks to the death of a good friend and mentor, how fragile life is. When the Russian Mafia begins to retaliate for the success of Lindsey's team that stopped dead a multi million dollar fraud operation using stolen credit card identities, both Lindsey and David are forced to go into hiding. Hiding is something that neither one is good at, especially with Mapstone pushed to solve his own case.

Containing twists and at times intense action, this novel continues the overall character story arc begun in the first novel "Concrete Desert." Enjoyable as the others, this novel does have more of a melancholy feel to it. Without giving too much away it is safe to say that some decisions for the future have to be made and the ending has enough wiggle room that it can be interpreted in two different ways.

Not to say both cases aren't satisfactorily resolved, because they are. While the Russian Mafia case is resolved pretty much as expected, the Pilgrim case has one final twist at the end that is shocking in its simplicity. Little new is added to the characters as the novel has Mapstone contemplating not only the past of Phoenix and what progress has done to the city in the last fifty plus years, but his own checkered and complex past and recent developments. Some of this ground has been covered before in "Concrete Desert" and "Camelback Falls" but is more of a constant presence in this novel. While containing plenty of action and complex cases, this book is a more introspective work and as such has a more melancholy feel than the previous two.

However, do not let that deter you from another excellent book in the series. As always, Jon Talton delivers a read full of interesting characters, vivid descriptive settings, and a pair of complex cases. The result is another twisting tale of the past and present and one very good book.


Dry Heat (A David Mapstone Mystery)
By Jon Talton
Thomas Dunne Books
www.minotaurbooks.com
ISBN 0-312-33385-4
Hardback
$22.95 US
$32.95 Canada

Earlier Books in the series are "Camelback Falls" and "
Concrete Desert." Because of the overriding story arcs, I would strongly suggest that they be read in order.


Kevin R. Tipple © 2005